Grand jury certifies murder charge

An Augusta County grand jury Monday indicted Timothy Aaron Wilkins, 39, of Churchville, in the murder of his girlfriend.

Augusta County Sheriff’s deputies testified they found Misty M. Phillips, 36, of Staunton, strangled and stuffed in the back of Wilkins’ Toyota 4 Runner in the Food Lion parking lot in Verona.

Investigator A.C. Powers said he spoke at length with Wilkins after the June arrest and listened as Wilkins described the murder of his girlfriend.

“He said, ‘I strangled her,’ ” Powers said. “They were mowing the yard and they had gotten into an argument. There was a scuffle that ensued.”

The strangling took approximately 33 seconds, Powers said. Wilkins then loaded the body into the back of his car, the investigator said. She remained there until police found her days later.

Phillips and Wilkins had a six-year relationship, authorities said. It was a pairing marked by tumultuous and drunken nights, according to court records and neighbors.

Wilkins is scheduled to stand trial in April.

The grand jury also indicted:

n James Paul Desper, 26, of Stuarts Draft, on rape charges. Authorities arrested him after a lookout discovered Desper and an 18-year-old mentally disabled woman at Relax Inn motel in Mint Spring. She had been reported missing to Roanoke County authorities.

The September arrest came less than a year after Desper’s release from prison on another sex charge. Desper pleaded guilty in September 2007 to taking indecent liberties with a 16-year-old Fishersville girl. He will stand trial in February.

n Michael W. Powell, 31, of Crimora, on charges of abuse and neglect of a child. Authorities arrested Powell on charges he allowed his 11-year-old son to drive a car because Powell and other adults were intoxicated. The Crimora boy lost control at 60 mph on Thoroughfare Road and skidded the car across an oncoming lane before rolling the vehicle at least twice and crashing it into a concrete culvert, according to Virginia State Police. Powell denied granting his son permission, but the boy testified, “Nobody was in shape to drive.”

n Robert R. Mitchell, 44, of Churchville, on charges he neglected and stole from his adopted 84-year-old mother. Mitchell and two friends each face 10 counts of grand larceny and single counts of felony abuse of an incapacitated person, threatening to burn or bomb a home and misdemeanor cruelty to animals.

n Albert Antwane Sledd, 28, Staunton, on rape and assault and battery charges. A woman testified that Sledd beat her Sept. 17, demanding that she have sex with him. She acquiesced, showered and went to work battered and bruised, she said.

n Tioni Seamster, 28, and Jesse Seamster, 35, on perjury charges. Tioni Seamster was charged with lying on the stand during a preliminary hearing held for charges her husband faced Aug. 14. Just minutes after the woman told officers, attorneys and a judge that she could not recall a beating from her husband, Jesse Seamster, he winked at her, authorities said. Jail phone call recordings aided prosecutors.

n April Hogsett, 26, of Staunton, on charges of delivering drugs to a prisoner at Augusta County Correctional Center while employed as a corrections officer.

n Ellen Michelle Hammer, 33, of Stuarts Draft on charges of delivering drugs to a prisoner at Middle River Regional Jail in Verona and William Campbell, 31, of Stuarts Draft, on charges of possessing drugs in the regional lockup. Campbell picked up drugs left by Hammer, authorities said.

n Eugene O. Hammer, 52, of Shenandoah, on malicious wounding charges. In August, Hammer stabbed a 30-year-old man three times outside East Side Speedway, north of Waynesboro, authorities said.